Koichi Ise -- Ashita ni Ikiro Baldios（あしたに生きろバルディオス）

 

Wow! Would you get a load of those opening credits? They remind me so much of those "Force Five" shows that I saw as a kid, and yet "Uchuu Senshi Baldios"（宇宙戦士 バルディオス）, which had its run from June 1980, wasn't a part of that five-pack of mecha anime (for obvious reasons since the mecha franchise was a late 1970s program) that made my wake-up calls for school somewhat less painful. However, seeing those credits for Baldios showed the similarities between that mecha and Getter Robo G（ゲッターロボG）which was brought into the "Force Five" realm as "Starvengers".

I can pick out a mecha anime opening theme song from the late 70s or early 80s fairly easily. There's something about the arrangement from that time with the soaring or shimmering strings flying over a rhythm that sounds like fusion which has me thinking about anime like "Macross"（マクロス）or some of the soundtrack from "Uchuu Senkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）in its later seasons going into the 80s. And that's definitely the case with the opening theme for "Uchuu Senshi Baldios" (Space Warrior Baldios), "Ashita ni Ikiro Baldios" (Live for Tomorrow, Baldios) by Koichi Ise（伊勢功一）. The fanfare horns, those strings and the thumping bass scream heroic robots for me.

"Ashita ni Ikiro Baldios" was written by Kougo Hotomi（保富康午）and composed/arranged by Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）. As for the singer Ise, it's his first time on the blog so let's provide some information about him. Ise is a native of Kobe, and after dropping out of Kansai University, he made his way to Tokyo with aspirations to become a pop singer. In 1968, he made his debut as the vocalist for the group Hiroo Nakagawa and Angeles（中川浩夫とアンジェラス）who would end up releasing 7 singles before deciding to go solo sometime in the early 1970s. Since then, he has released his own share of singles and albums, and apparently has done the dinner show circuit several times a year.